Kicking Position

One of the Soul's biggest weaknesses last season was the kicking position. The Soul had four different kickers on their roster at various points last season and their inability to find an "answer" at the position really hurt them. Team's with veteran, proven kickers can take chances when it comes to kicking field goals. Not many teams put much faith in their kicker at crucial times because they face such a disadvantage in the game of arena football. In the NFL, goal posts are 10 feet high and 18 feet, 6 inches wide. In the AFL, goal posts are 15 feet high and just 9 feet wide. That's basically cutting a kicker's chance of making a field goal in half because the crossbar in the AFL is so much shorter than the NFL's (the NCAA has the same dimensions as the NFL).

Unlike the NFL where extra points are basically a given, in the AFL, nothing is guaranteed when it comes to the kicking game. A missed field goal can turn into a return by the opposition resulting in a touchdown. Punts don't exist in the AFL, long field goals are like punts since the kicker has little chance to make field goals at such long distances. This is also what makes the AFL more exiting than the NFL in this regards, points can be scored at anytime. "Punts" can result in a made field goal and missed "field goals" can turn into run backs for the other team.

These possibilities become more evident when a team does not contain a reliable kicker on the roster. Since field goal stats can be skewed, the biggest indicator of a great kicker is his percentage of PAT's (Point After Touchdown) made. A kicker that converts a high percentage of PAT's is a very desirable player to have on one's roster.

Well the Soul didn't have any such luxury as kickers came and went time and time again throughout the season. The Soul weren't horrible at PAT kicking, but they weren't where they needed to be in order to compete with the rest of the league. The Soul ranked 12th out of 18 teams last season in PAT kicking. Soul kickers made 104/128 PAT for a .812 conversion rate. The top 5 PAT kicking teams in the AFL (Force, Predators, Vigilantes, Shock and Rattlers) last season qualified for post season play. Two teams (Gladiators and Sharks) actually kicked worse then the Soul, but still made the playoffs. The Sharks went on to win ArenaBowl XXIV despite a .781 PAT conversion rate, but they also attempted the most PAT in the league with 155 attempted and 121 made. The Soul did not contain such a high octane offense which led to them not being able to overcome such weaknesses.

Here's each kicker and how he fared while with the Soul in 2011:

James Paul (Games 1,2,3) - 13/17 PAT -> 76% made [1-2 record]
Massim Scaccia (Games 4,5,6) - 17/22 PAT -> 77% made [0-3 record]
Robbie Smith (Games 7,8,9,10,13) - 35/41 PAT -> 85% made [2-3 record]
Jon Strictsky (Games 11,12,14,15,16,17,18) - 39/48 PAT -> 81% made [3-4 record]

Here's how each kicker fared kicking field goals with the Soul in 2011:


James Paul (Games 1,2,3) - 2 made (18 and 25 yards) & 1 missed (24 yards) -> 67% made
Massim Scaccia (Games 4,5,6) - 0 made & 5 missed (26, 18, 59, 51, and 37 yards) -> 0% made
Robbie Smith (Games 7,8,9,10,13) - None attempted
Jon Strictsky (Games 11,12,14,15,16,17,18) - 2 made (20 and 19 yards) and 2 missed (41 and 44 yards)

No Soul kicker converted a field goal longer than 25 yards and even though the overall conversion rate for the team was at 4/12 good for just 33% made, that total included some "punts" that I spoke about earlier. The Soul ranked tied for 11th in the league with their 33%  of field goals made with 3 other teams. The best team was the Spokane Shock who converted 6/9 for 67% made. The Milwaukee Mustangs attempted the most field goals (32) and made the most (20) in the AFL. The Utah Blaze attempted the league's fewest with just 3 attempts, only making 1 of them.

Each team last year averaged around 14.39 field goal attempts last season--making 6.44 of those attempts. So the league didn't even average at a 50% conversion rate for field goals, it averaged 45% made on the season. The Soul ranked below the league's average in every category and finding a veteran kicker should be one of the team's top priorities this off-season. Shouldn't underestimate the value of a quality kicker because as Soul fans witnessed in 2011, every point matters in these high scoring games. I don't see the answer anywhere among the Soul's 4 kickers last season, so hopefully Plank has someone in mind since the season is approaching ever so quickly.